Cards are ordinarily provided to players in casino table card games either directly from a deck held in the dealer's hands, as a group from a hand-forming and shuffling device or with cards removed by the dealer from a dealing shoe. The original dealing shoes were little more than trays that supported the deck(s) of cards in a tray and allowed the dealer to remove the front card (with its back facing the table to hide the rank of the card) and deliver it to a player. Over the years, both stylistic and functional changes have been made to dealing shoes, which have been used for blackjack, poker, baccarat and other casino table card games.
Numerous patents have been issued for inventive equipment and methods used to advance the art of casino card game play. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,585,586; 6,582,302; and 6,293,864 to Romero describe a gaming assembly to play a variation of the game baccarat, the gaming assembly including a computer processor assembly, a display assembly and at least one user actuatable selector assembly. The computer processor assembly is structured to generate a player's hand and a banker's hand in accordance with rules of baccarat, one of those hands being designated the user's hand. Further, the computer processor assembly is structured to determine a winning hand in accordance with the rules of baccarat, designating the user as a winner if the user's hand is also the winning hand. Additionally, the computer processor assembly is structured to monitor consecutive ones of the user's hands and to indicate a bonus payout to the user in the event that consecutive ones of the user's hands have a final number count equal to a natural nine.
Other patents relate to the structure and function of automatic card shufflers, U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,959 to Pfeiffer et al. describes a card-handling apparatus including a card hopper adapted to hold from one to at least 104 cards, a card carousel having slots for holding cards, an injector for sequentially loading cards from the hopper into the carousel, output ports, ejectors for delivering cards from the carousel to any one of the output ports, and a control board and sensors, all housed in a housing. The apparatus is capable of communicating with selectors that are adjustable for making card selections. The injector has three rollers driven by a motor via a worm gear. A spring-loaded lever keeps cards in the hopper pressed against the first roller. The ejectors are pivotally mounted to the base of the housing beneath the carousel and comprise a roller driven by a motor via gears and a centripetal clutch. A control board keeps track of the identity of cards in each slot, card selections, and the carousel position. Cards may be ordinary playing cards or other cards with bar codes added for card identification by the apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,122 to Roblejo relates to an apparatus for randomizing and verifying sets of playing cards. Also, the invention relates to a process of providing such an apparatus; feeding to the apparatus one or more cards either after they have been played in a game or from an unrandomized or unverified set of cards; and manually retrieving a verified true set of cards from the apparatus. Also, the invention relates to a process of playing in a casino setting or simulated casino setting, a card game comprising providing such an apparatus, feeding unverified sets of playing cards to the apparatus, and recovering verified true sets of cards from the apparatus.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,267,248 to Johnson et al. describes a collation and/or sorting apparatus for groups of articles, which is exemplified by a sorting and/or shuffling device for playing cards. The apparatus comprises a sensor (15) to identify articles for collation and/or sorting, feeding means to feed cards from a stack (11) past the sensor (15) to a delivery means (14) adapted to deliver cards individually to a preselected one of a storing means (24) in an indexable magazine (20). A microprocessor (16) coupled to the feed means (14), delivery means (18), sensor (15) and magazine (20) determines according to a preprogrammed routine whether cards identified by sensor (15) are collated in the magazine (20) as an ordered deck of cards or a randomly ordered or “shuffled” deck. No specific reading mechanism is provided.
A number of patents relate to card-dispensing shoes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,743 to Nicoletti describes the use of a mechanical card-dispensing means to advance cards at least part way out of a dealing shoe. The described invention is for a dispenser for playing cards comprising: a shoe adapted to contain a plurality of stacked playing cards, the playing cards including a leading card and a trailing card; the shoe including a back wall, first and second side walls, a front wall, a base, and an inclined floor extending from the back wall to proximate the front wall and adapted to support the playing cards; the floor being inclined downwardly from the back wall to the front wall; the front wall having an opening and otherwise being adapted to conceal the leading card; and the front wall, side walls, base and floor enclosing a slot positioned adjacent the floor, the slot being sized to permit a playing card to pass through the slot; card-advancing means contacting the trailing card and adapted to urge the stacked cards down the inclined floor; card-dispensing means positioned proximate the front wall and adapted to dispense a single card at a time, the card-dispensing means including leading card contact means adapted for rotation about an axis parallel to the leading card, whereby rotation of the leading card contact means displaces the leading card relative to the card stack and into a predetermined position extending out of the shoe from the slot; and an endless belt located in the opening in the front wall for rotating the leading card contact means, the endless belt having an exterior surface securely engaging the leading card contact means and being adapted to be displaced by an operator.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,546 to Meissner et al. describes a method and apparatus including an automated dealing shoe to enable a game to be played based upon a plurality of cards. An automated dealing shoe dispenses each of the cards and recognizes each of the cards as each card is dispensed. Player stations are also included. Each player station enables a player to enter a bet, request that a card be dispensed or not dispensed, and to convert each bet into a win or a loss based upon the cards that are dispensed by the automated dealing shoe. This patent discloses the use of card readers for the play of blackjack.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,605,334; 6,093,103 and 6,117,012 to McCrea, Jr., disclose apparatus for use in a security system for card games. A secure game table system is described for monitoring each hand in a progressive live card game, the progressive live card game having at least one deck, the at least one deck having a predetermined number of cards. The secure game table system comprises: a shoe for holding each card from the at least one deck before being dealt by a dealer in each hand, the shoe having a detector for reading at least the value and the suit of each card. For the most part, unique codes are provided on the cards, although it may be inferred that cards can be read in some undefined, alternative manner.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,582,301; 6,299,536; 6,039,650; and 5,722,893 to Hill describe a dealing shoe that has a card scanner that scans indicia on a playing card as the card moves along and out of a chute by manual direction by the dealer in the normal fashion. The scanner can be one of several different types of devices that will sense each card as it is moved downwardly and out of the shoe. A feed-forward neural network is trained, using error back-propagation to recognize all possible card suits and card values sensed by the scanner. Such a neural network becomes a part of a scanning system that provides a proper reading of the cards to determine the progress of the play of the game including how the game might suffer if the game players are allowed to count cards using a card count system and perform other acts that would limit the profit margin of the casino. Scanned information is fed to a computer for extensive analysis. Apparently the entire marking image is read or a bar code is read.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,126,166 to Lorson et al. describes a system for monitoring play of a card game between a dealer and one or more players at a playing table, comprising: (a) a card-dispensing shoe comprising one or more active card-recognition sensors positioned to generate signals corresponding to transitions between substantially light background and dark pip areas as standard playing cards are dispensed from the card-dispensing shoe, without generating a bit-mapped image of each dispensed standard playing card; and (b) a signal processing subsystem. The subsystem may be adapted to: receive the transition signals generated by the active card-recognition sensors; determine, in real time and based on the transition signals, playing-card values for the dispensed standard playing cards; and determine, in real time, a current table statistical advantage/disadvantage relative to the players for playing cards remaining in the card-dispensing shoe.
Patents in the art describe card-sorting devices. U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,632 to Albrecht describes an apparatus and method for sorting cards into a predetermined sequence. One embodiment provides a deck holding area in which cards are held for presenting a card to a reading head for reading the characters on the face of the card. The apparatus also has a tray having a sequence of slots and a card-moving mechanism for moving the presented card from the deck holding area into one of the slots. The tray is connected to a tray-positioning mechanism for selectively positioning the tray to receive a card in one of the slots from the card-moving mechanism. A controller is connected to the reading head, the card-moving mechanism, and the tray-positioning mechanism. The controller controls the reading of each of the cards by the reading head and identifies the value of each card read, and also controls the card-moving mechanism to move each of the cards to a slot of the tray positioned by the tray-positioning mechanism according to the predetermined sequence of values.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,403,908 to Stardust et al. describes an automated method and apparatus for sequencing and/or inspecting decks of playing cards. The method and apparatus utilizes pattern recognition technology or other image comparison technology to compare one or more images of a card with memory containing known good images of a complete deck of playing cards to identify each card as it passes through the apparatus. Once the card is identified, it is temporarily stored in a location corresponding to or identified according to its position in a properly sequenced deck of playing cards. No specific reading mechanism is provided. If a playing card has not been rejected based upon improper color of the back of the card, the embedded processor then determines the rank and suit (position) of the card in a properly sequenced deck of cards, using digital image processing to compare the digital images obtained from that specific playing card against the plurality of stored card images which comprise a complete 52-card deck. This step either comprises an application of pattern recognition technology or other image comparison technology.
WO 00/51076 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,894 assigned to Dolphin Advanced Technologies Pty Ltd. disclose a card inspection device that includes a first loading area adapted to receive one or more decks of playing cards. A drive roller is located adjacent the loading area and positioned to impinge on a card if a card were present in the loading area. The loading area has an exit through which cards are urged, one at a time, by a feed roller. A transport path extends from the loading area exit to a card accumulation area. The transport path is further defined by two pairs of transport rollers, one roller of each pair above the transport path and one roller of each pair below the transport path. A camera is located between the two pairs of transport rollers, and a processor governs the operation of a digital camera and the rollers. A printer produces a record of the device's operation based on an output of the processor, and a portion of the transport path is illuminated by one or more blue LEDs.
A number of patents describe card-reading devices on gaming tables. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,681,039 to Miller describes a “no peek” device for speeding the pace of a game of blackjack. The device is comprised of a housing having a top surface. A card reader for reading at least a portion of a playing card is located within the housing. An indicator cooperating with the card reader is provided to inform the dealer if his down card is of a desired value. There is also disclosed therein a method for increasing the speed of play in an organized game of blackjack. It indicates the presence of an ace or ten as the hole card in the dealer's blackjack hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,447 to Lofink et al. describes a method and system for generating displays related to the play of baccarat. Cards dealt to each of the banker's and player's hands are identified by scanning and data signals are generated. The card identification data signals are processed to determine the outcome of the hand. Displays in various formats to be used by bettors are created from the processed identification signals including the cards of the hand played, historical records of outcomes and the like. The display can also show bettors' expected outcomes and historical bests. Bettors can refer to the display in making betting decisions. The cards are read between the shoe and the player positions, outside of the shoe.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,669,819 and 5,772,505 to Garczynski et al. describes a dual card-scanning module for announcing when the symbols of a face-up standard playing card and a face-down standard playing card achieve a desired combination (a blackjack). The module has a scanner system that illuminates and scans at least a portion of a symbol of the face-up standard playing card and at least a portion of a symbol of the face-down standard playing card and stores the results thereof in a first and second array device, respectively. The module also has a guide to assist in receiving and positioning the cards such that the face-up standard playing card is above and aligned with the face-down standard playing card. When in this position, the symbol portions of the face-up and the face-down standard playing cards can be scanned by the array devices to generate respective scanning results. The module compares the scanning results with a memory storing a plurality of references representing respective symbols of the standard playing cards to determine if the cards have achieved the desired combination.
Casinos wish to understand the play and wagering traits of their customers. Some casinos have employees visually observe customer's game play, manually tracking the gaming and wagering habits of the particular customers. The information allows the casinos to select the number of different games that the casino will provide and to adequately staff those games. The information also allows the casinos to select certain customers to receive complimentary benefits (“comps”) and to determine the amount of comps a particular customer is to receive. The act of giving comps to a customer produces a large amount of goodwill with the customers, encouraging customer loyalty and further wagering. Some casinos have attempted to partially automate the tracking process, reading a customer “comp” card to identify the customer. The actual gaming and wagering patterns of the customers are visually observed by casino personnel and manually entered into a computer to create a digitized copy of the customer's gaming habits.
Similarly, casinos wish to track the efficiency of the casino and the casino's employees, as well as track betting and winning tendencies of individual players to avoid card counters or other play strategies that casinos consider to be undesirable. Such information allows the casino to make changes to identified situations and to increase the overall efficiency of the casino and of the employees, benefiting both the casino and customers. A typical method of tracking employee efficiency is to manually count the number of hands of blackjack dealt by a dealer over a certain time period. A change in an amount in a bank at the gaming table can also be manually determined and combined with the count of the number of hands to determine a won/lost percentage for the dealer. The casino can use the information to take appropriate action, such as rewarding an efficient dealer, or providing additional training to an inefficient dealer.
The fast pace and large sums of money make casinos regular targets for fraud, cheating and stealing. Casinos employ a variety of security measures to discourage cheating or stealing by both customers and employees. For example, surveillance cameras covering a gaming area or particular gaming table provide a live or taped video signal that security personnel can closely examine. Additionally, or alternatively, “pit managers” can visually monitor the live play of a game at the gaming table. The ability to track cards, track card play, track cards between a shuffling step (where the order of cards is identified by the shuffler through a reading function) and the dealing step (by reading cards in the dealing shoe) adds a further level of security to the casino and provides a clear basis of data for analysis by a central computer.
While some aspects of a casino's security system should be plainly visible as a deterrent, other aspects of the security should be unobtrusive to avoid detracting from the players' enjoyment of the game and to prevent cheaters and thieves from avoiding detection. The ability of a dealing shoe to accurately read cards outside the view of players is a benefit to the secure environment without increasing the negative effects of players repeatedly seeing security devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,769 to Order describes a device for professional use in table games of chance with playing cards and gaming chips (jettons), in particular the game of “blackjack.” The apparatus includes a card shoe with an integrated device for recognition of the value of the drawn cards (3′) (optical recognition device and mirroring into a CCD-image converter); photodiodes (52) arranged under the table cloth (51) in order to register separately the casino light passing through each area (53, 54) for placing the gaming chips (41) and areas (55, 56) for placing the playing cards (3) in dependence of the arrangement or movement of the jettons and playing cards on the mentioned areas; a device for automatic recognition of each bet (scanner to register the color of the jettons, or an RFID system comprising an S/R station and jettons with an integrated transponder); an EDP program created in accordance with the gaming rules to evaluate and store all data transmitted from the functional devices to the computer; and a monitor to display the run of the game and players' wins.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,460,848 to Soltys et al. assigned to MindPlay LLC, describes another more comprehensive monitoring system that automatically monitors playing and wagering of a game, including the gaming habits of players and the performance of employees. A card deck reader automatically reads a symbol from each card in a deck of cards before a first one of the cards is removed. The symbol identifies a respective rank and suit of the card. A chip tray reader automatically images the contents of a chip tray, to periodically determine the number and value of chips in the chip tray, and to compare the change in contents of the chip tray to the outcome of game play for verifying that the proper amounts have been paid out and collected. A table monitor automatically images the activity occurring at a gaming table. Periodic comparison of the images identify wagering, as well as the appearance, removal and position of cards and other game objects on the gaming table. A drop box automatically verifies an amount and authenticity of a deposit and reconciles the deposit with a change in the contents of the chip tray. The drop box employs a variety of lighting and resolutions to image selected portions of the deposited item. The system detects prohibited playing and wagering patterns, and determines the win/loss percentage of the players and the dealer, as well as a number of other statistically relevant measures. The measurements provide automated security and real-time accounting. The measurements also provide a basis for automatically allocating complimentary player benefits. There are numerous other MindPlay LLC, patents including, at this time, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,712,696; 6,688,979; 6,685,568; 6,663,490; 6,652,379; 6,638,161; 6,595,857; 6,579,181; 6,579,180; 6,533,662; 6,533,276; 6,530,837; 6,530,836; 6,527,271; 6,520,857; 6,517,436; and 6,517,435.
A number of techniques are known for processing data from an imager. Published U.S. Patent Application No. 2001/0036231 (Easkar) discloses an in-camera two-stage data compression process that reduces the latency between snapshots to a fraction of that otherwise required by other systems. Other known systems either process complete compression following each snapshot or incorporate heavy, bulky, and expensive RAM hardware capable of maintaining several raw luminosity records (unprocessed file containing a digital image). In the first stage of compression, the raw luminosity record is quickly, yet partially, compressed to available RAM buffer space to allow a user to expeditiously capture a succeeding image. When the higher-priority processes, the user shooting pictures, and stage one compression subside, a second stage compression, which is slower but more effective, decompresses the earlier partially compressed images, and re-compresses them for saving in Flash memory until they are distributed to a remote platform to be finally converted to the JPEG 2000 format.
In addition to the numerous advances in data acquisition and card handling for table games, there are a number of prior art patents that illustrate various methods of extracting gaming related data from images captured with a video camera. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,647 to Fishbine et al. describes a method of collecting images of a stack of chips on a gaming table, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,297 describes techniques for extracting chip number and value information from video images of chip stacks. Similarly, there exists commercially available “machine vision” software that has been used in the past to extract data from digital image files. This technique is described for use in a card-reading device within a card shuffler, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,753,373, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, and entitled Multiple Mode Card Shuffler and Card Reading Device (the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety) that can be purchased an adapted to extract rank and suit data from images of card faces captured with a video camera or other similar optical device capable of capturing two dimensional images.
Each of the references identified in the Background and the remainder of the specification, including the Cross-Reference to Related Applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety as part of the enabling disclosure for such elements as apparatus, methods, hardware and software.